Publication

This brief critiques UN Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11), which seeks to make cities more inclusive, safe, resilient and maintainable. In general, the brief's authors contend that the proposed goal is extremely ambitious and universal in scope, which both strengthens and weakens it at the same time. Indeed, SDG 11’s ambitiousness can inspire holistic problem solving by multiple actors, but it also has to take into account the particularity of cities, which includes their size, available resources, population trends, etc. After grappling with this conundrum, the authors close by discussing 1) how city governments can promote sustainable development, and 2) how SDG 11 relates to the problem of urban violence.